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The present invention relates generally to distance education and, in particular, to providing virtual interactive multimedia training classes.
Distance education is becoming increasingly important. Factors such as the limited availability of quality teachers, globalization of institutions and corporations, importance of skill updating and self-learning, versatility of the Internet medium in supporting multimedia lessons, and an increase in part-time and continuing education have led to the popularity of distance learning and training.
Conventional computer implemented distance education discusses electronic classrooms, remote examinations and Internet based learning. Examples of such distance education techniques are described in United States patents:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,537,141 issued on Jul. 16, 1996 to Harper et al. and entitled xe2x80x9cDistance learning system providing individual television participation, audio responses and memory for every studentxe2x80x9d;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,850,250 issued on Dec. 15, 1998 to Konopka et al. and entitled xe2x80x9cVideo distance learning systemxe2x80x9d;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,785,472 issued on Nov. 15, 1988 to Shapiro and entitled xe2x80x9cRemote teaching systemxe2x80x9d;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,3030,42 issued on Apr. 12, 1994 to Lewis et al. and entitled xe2x80x9cComputer-implemented method and apparatus for remote educational instructionxe2x80x9d;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,458,494 issued on Oct. 17, 1995 to Krohn et al. and entitled xe2x80x9cRemotely operable teaching system and method thereforxe2x80x9d; and
U.S. Pat. No. 5,915,973 issued on Jun. 29, 1999 to Hoehn-Saric et al. and entitled xe2x80x9cSystem for administration of remotely-proctored, secure examinations and methods thereforxe2x80x9d.
The following documents deal with online collaboration:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,996,002 issued on Nov. 30, 1999 to Katsurabayashi et al. and entitled xe2x80x9cCollaborative work support system and method to facilitate the process of discussion in a meeting using a shared windowxe2x80x9d;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,948,022 issued on Sep. 7, 1999 to Carleton et al. and entitled xe2x80x9cRemote collaboration systemxe2x80x9d; and
U.S. Pat. No. 5,923,844 issued on Jul. 13, 1999 to Pommier et al. and entitled xe2x80x9cRemote collaboration among host computer running host program and remote computers each running application programxe2x80x9d.
Existing computer implementations of distance education work as follows: the instructor places lesson material on a server computer. This material may consist of presentations, video of live classrooms, data, audio, etc. The students access the server through the Internet or intranet, and read the material at their leisure. The instructor may schedule xe2x80x9cchat sessionsxe2x80x9d, during which the instructor and the students can discuss (typically through typewritten interaction) aspects of the lesson material. Alternatively, remote education may happen on a dedicated high bandwidth network where live classrooms from one location are shown at remote locations through streaming video. The students may interact with the teacher over telephone. Questions in examinations are typically multiple-choice and typewritten.
Existing computer implementations of distance education fall short of real world classrooms. These deficiencies impact the quality of learning and training, and also the business aspects of education. In a real world classroom, classes happen at specified times and allow students to interact with the teacher and peers. The school can charge students tuition fees for classes attended. Students ask voice-based questions in real-time to the teacher, who then responds to that one student or to the whole class. Students talk to each other during the class. The teacher customises lesson delivery according to the students present in the class and teachers can pay special attention to students who have special needs or requirements.
Retaining the advantages of real world classrooms in computer implemented distance education is difficult. This is particularly true in cases where appropriate network infrastructure is lacking, for example in developing nations like India. The interactivity and rich content which good virtual classrooms should have require large bandwidth. Bandwidth is expensive, unreliable or simply unavailable in developing nations. The available bandwidth is shared among many users, so supporting high quality distance education in peak times becomes difficult and expensive.
Conventional techniques fail to accurately replicate real world learning environments in low bandwidth environments. Real-time presentation of content-rich lesson material is restricted to environments with dedicated high bandwidth networks. Low bandwidth environments are typically restricted to limited typewritten interaction between the instructor and students. There is a need for content-rich distance education in low bandwidth environments.
The aspects of the invention include a method and an implemented system for distance education. The method facilitates high quality interactive virtual classes, which provide the versatility of real world classrooms, to be implemented within online bandwidth constraints.
Multimedia-rich lessons comprising video, audio and text are sent to the student (xe2x80x9cclientxe2x80x9d) by the instructor from a server. The lessons may be transmitted at any time prior to the commencement of the class, preferably during non-peak usage hours of the network. Students join classes that are scheduled at specific times by requesting admission. During the class, multimedia content that is locally resident on the client is remotely controlled by the instructor, providing rich multimedia interactivity. The control parameters and live interaction are carefully designed to require small bandwidth. By minimizing the amount of information transmitted whilst the training session is in progress, high quality distance education is able to be implemented in low bandwidth settings. Furthermore, voice based interaction and multimedia lessons obviate the need for literacy, enabling the method to be used for health education, vocational training, etc. of illiterate people.
The current invention may be used for the additional purpose of online collaboration.
A specific embodiment of the invention is implemented using satellite broadcast as a high bandwidth forward channel, and low bandwidth telephone connection as a reverse link. Student to instructor interaction is voice and text based, while instructor to student interaction is text, audio or control of remote audio/video/presentation files.
It is an object of the present invention to substantially overcome, or at least ameliorate, one or more disadvantages of existing arrangements.
According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a method for distance education via a computer network comprising the steps of:
receiving signals from one or more instructor entities, the signals including lesson material, the lesson material designated as belonging to one or more interest groups;
sending lesson material in advance to student entities listed in one or more of the interest groups to which the lesson material is designated as belonging;
receiving signals from one or more student entities requesting admission to a particular class; and
sending instructions to student entities to control the display and execution of the lesson material.
According to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided apparatus for distance education via a computer network comprising:
means for receiving signals from one or more instructor entities, the signals including lesson material, the lesson material designated as belonging to one or more interest groups;
means for sending lesson material in advance to student entities listed in one or more of the interest groups to which the lesson material is designated as belonging;
means for receiving signals from one or more student entities requesting admission to a particular class; and
means for sending instructions to student entities to control the display and execution of the lesson material.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a computer program product having a computer usable medium having a computer readable program code means embodied therein, said computer program product comprising:
computer readable program code means for receiving signals from one or more instructor entities, the signals including lesson material, the lesson material designated as belonging to one or more interest groups;
computer readable program code means for sending lesson material in advance to student entities listed in one or more of the interest groups to which the lesson material is designated as belonging;
computer readable program code means for receiving signals from one or more student entities requesting admission to a particular class; and
computer readable program code means for sending instructions to student entities to control the display and execution of the lesson material.